The End of the Chase
by Worryingly Innocent
Summary: AU, follow-up to 'The Charity Chase', in honour of Red Nose Day. Gold's students react to the momentous news that his record has been broken…


**Summary: **AU, follow-up to 'The Charity Chase', in honour of Red Nose Day. Gold's students react to the momentous news that his record has been broken…

**Disclaimer:** Alas, I own nought but the plot and the original from which this sequel was spawned.

**Dawn Stephens**, as anyone who's following the Cake'Verse will know, is the 'Storybrooke-ified' name I give to Sleeping Beauty's **Princess Aurora**, whilst **Tara Castle** is **Rapunzel**.

**Note:** In honour of Red Nose Day, another BBC charity telethon whereby people raise funds for deserving projects in the UK and abroad and people up and down the country participate in events, I decided to return to the world of the Charity Chase and write up the long-awaited and much-requested sequel. I hope you enjoy.

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**The End of the Chase**

Dawn Stephens, final year history and classical civilisation student at Storybrooke University, was one of those rare people who didn't like Fridays. It was not for any deep-seated psychological reason other than she had two lectures on Friday afternoons, when she could theoretically have been starting the weekend early.

Her two lectures, at three and four o'clock respectively, the latter being an agonising two hours long, were both in the same lecture theatre, so whilst everyone else left the room to begin the weekend's relaxation, or at least to go and sit in another room and have a pleasing change of scenery, Dawn was left sitting alone, waiting for the rest of her four o'clock classmates to turn up, and trying not to fall asleep. It wasn't her fault that the lecture theatre was comparatively dark so that the projector screen showed up better, and was very warm because of the kitchens next door, and as such had the perfect atmosphere for falling asleep in.

At least, that's what she had protested on the more-than-one occasion that Dr Gold had brought the handle of his cane down on her desk with a blood curdling thwack less than three inches from her drooped head. She enjoyed his course, and she worked well in her Tuesday morning seminar on the subject, but she really couldn't be expected to pay any attention at four o'clock on a Friday afternoon when she'd just been listening to Professor White talking about Charles II for a solid hour without making any sense at all.

At least the day had been marginally less soul-destroying than usual with the charity events going on, including the all-important Chase. Dawn and her flatmates had been running the sweepstake stall in the foyer, and Dawn had frequently been charged, throughout the morning, with running off in search of the various faculty members to report on progress. She had had to leave Tara running the stand alone when she came away for her lecture, but she would soon be joining Dawn in the theatre and leaving their money-making venture in the somewhat capable hands of Astrid for the last two hours. As clumsy as she was, their final flatmate showed a remarkably shrewd sense of business for someone studying theology and seriously considering becoming a nun.

Dawn herself had made the customary bets concerning the Chase, the same she had made the past two years – Professor Marco would have at least three lipstick marks by lunchtime, Dr Tempest would leave her lipstick on every history PhD student, and Dr Gold would keep his record for another year.

When people started filing into the lecture theatre for their four o'clock lecture with said Dr Gold, however, Dawn's ears pricked up, and she was suddenly extremely awake.

"I heard someone broke Gold's record."

"Yeah, wasn't it Ruby Lucas from English?"

"Hey, Ryan, have you seen Gold today? Has he been marked?"

"Hang on, what was Gold doing in the English department anyway?"

"Who said he was in English? I thought it was French? You know, these French exchange PhD students..."

"No, it was Belle French who broke his record, not someone from the French department, you fool!"

"Do we even know for a fact he's been marked?"

Dawn leaned further forward over her desk, trying to work out the truth from the gabbled conversations.

"Dawn?" Her boyfriend-to-be-just-as-soon-as-Dawn-had-enough-courage-to-ask-him Philip sat down beside her with a rather perplexed expression on his face. "What are you doing?"

She sat back down and indicated the front of the lecture theatre where students were still entering in dribs and drabs. "Has Gold's record been broken?"

Philip rolled his eyes.

"Honestly, can't anyone think of anything else to talk about?"

"No," Dawn replied bluntly. "This is a momentous occasion, Philip. It is necessary that we furnish it with the correct level of gossip. Not only that, but our flat runs the sweepstake so we need to keep an eye on these things."

"Dawn, Cara Mallory emails you the results, there's no need for you to keep going off to keep a running tally. I guess that if we can all wait five _agonising _minutes, we'll all find out first hand if Gold's been marked, won't we?

"Don't be such a cynic, it's Chase day. It's all for a good cause!"

"Hmm." Philip still sounded distinctly sceptical. The lecture theatre was practically full now, and it was almost four o'clock.

Suddenly, the door burst open to reveal Tara Castle, Dawn's flatmate and fellow classics student, grinning from ear to ear like the Cheshire Cat.

Now, this was a very strange expression for Tara to be wearing at four o'clock on a Friday afternoon. Normally, Tara's expression at that particular point in time was one of blind fear. It was no secret amongst her classmates that Tara was absolutely terrified of the archiving professor, and it was only her passionate desire to work in the British Museum that kept her going with his course.

It was this, more than the rumours flying around the rest of the class, that really made Dawn wonder if something might be up.

"It's official!" Tara announced to the lecture theatre at large. "Gold's record's broken! And I don't just mean broken, I mean absolutely and thoroughly smashed!"

The room burst into a veritable uproar at this.

"Who?"

"What?"

"How?"

"When?"

"What do you mean by 'absolutely and thoroughly smashed'?"

Suddenly, the entire lecture theatre fell silent as a familiar gold handle tapped Tara on the shoulder. She turned, saw its owner and the familiar fear returned as she shot out of the doorway and into the empty seat that Dawn had been saving for her with an alarmingly high-pitched squeal.

Nobody said a word as Dr Gold calmly entered the lecture theatre, stuck his laptop into the docking station and began searching for a drywipe marker that actually worked. The man had officially managed to render them all completely speechless.

For not only did he have a perfect scarlet swak on his cheek, his lips were definitely smeared with the stuff as well.

So _that _was what Tara had meant when she said that his record had not only been broken, but smashed.

"Good afternoon," Gold began, blithely ignoring the somewhat awed looks he was getting and tapping the lid of his laptop impatiently whilst the projector loaded. "We'll begin with a recap of what we covered last week; does anyone have any questions about the last lecture or the set reading?"

No-one made any reply, until Ryan Evans boldly raised his hand.

"Oh no…" Tara buried her face in her hands. Dawn, Philip, Tara and Ryan had shared a class since their first year, and they all knew that Ryan's question would not be in any way related, in any shape or form, to museum management and financing.

"Mr Evans?"

"You got any more lipstick where we can't see it, Doc?"

The pre-requisite murmur of shock ran round the room before dying away. However many people were thinking it, no-one but Ryan would ever dare to say it aloud. Not to Gold's face.

The professor remained completely impassive.

"I don't believe that's a question related to the set reading or the last lecture, Mr Evans. Would you care to ask anything more pertinent?"

"Erm…"

"In that case, I have a question for you, Mr Evans. Can you explain to me the Museums Act 1845?"

"Erm…" Ryan repeated. "Something to do with elephants?" he tried feebly.

Gold raised an eyebrow.

"Perhaps you can tell me instead who the current head of the Antiquities Advisory Committee is?"

"Erm…" Ryan admitted defeat. "I'll get my coat," he mumbled, beginning to pack his notes away. It was something that everyone learned in their first week in Gold's class - if you hadn't done your reading, you got out of the lecture. Sharpish.

"I'm glad I've taught you well, Mr Evans," said Gold calmly. Dawn was fairly certain she could see the beginnings of a smirk creeping over her professor's stained lips. "Anyone else? Miss Stephens?"

Surprised, Dawn gave a squeak that sounded something like 'meep!' and resisted the urge to dive under her desk. In her first year, she had actually done that once when Gold had called on her in a lecture. To his credit, he had been amused rather than annoyed, but Dawn liked to think that she'd matured past the hiding stage.

Tara, on the other hand, was sinking lower and lower in her seat.

"Erm…" Dawn looked down at her notes. She had done her reading, she just needed to find the right place. "Erm, the Museums Act 1845 gave town councils the power to establish museums and the current head of the AAC is… well, it's you, Dr Gold"

Whilst a lot of the faculty were on first name terms with their students, Dr Gold was one who had always been prickly about that subject. Dawn couldn't think of anyone in her entire three years at the university who knew his full name. As a compromise, he usually answered to just Doc or Gold with his final years and Master students, but Dawn felt it best to keep on his right side and use his full title.

"Thank you, Miss Stephens. Now, if there are no more questions, concerning lipstick or otherwise, I suggest we press on. We've a lot to cover this afternoon. I needn't remind any of you that the exam timetable is being finalised as we speak and the rubrics will be published on Monday."

The moment for frivolity had passed; Gold's MA prep course was a difficult one to pass and Dawn, Tara and Philip all needed to work hard and do well in it in order to get onto the Master proper. They'd had their applications in and Gold had interviewed each of them, and provisionally, they were in – subject to passing the prep course and receiving a good enough mark overall on their Bachelors.

So the next two hours passed in a whirl of dates, legislation and the odd useless fact thrown in to spice things up and prevent anyone from nodding off, not that this usually helped Dawn much – Philip normally had to poke her with his pencil at least twice.

But not this time. This time, the room was practically buzzing so much that Dawn couldn't have slept if she'd tried. There was only one thought on anyone's mind past the immediacy of what they were being taught. Who in God's name had been brave enough to kiss Gold, and on the lips as well? And who on earth could have prised open his hard outer shell enough for him to _let_ her kiss him?

The answer came at the very end of the lesson, when most of the class had already left the room, ready to start the weekend with a bang and see if there was anything left on the cake stand outside the lecture theatre. Dawn and Tara were still packing up their things ready to go back and relieve Astrid when someone came into the lecture theatre. Dawn wasn't overly surprised; this was the place where the faculty would gather to see the results of the chase that Professor Mallory would send to them the next day so that they could figure out which predictions had been correct.

The entrant was Belle French, PhD student in the English department, new this year. She gave Gold a little grin as she sidled into the room, and Dawn saw Tara freeze with her textbooks half in and half out of her bag.

"Tara?" Dawn hissed. "Tara? Are you ok?"

"Scarlet carson," was Tara's faint reply

"Pardon?"

"Scarlet carson," Tara repeated. "Belle's lipstick shade is scarlet carson. I saw her buying it in the chemist on Tuesday. I knew it looked familiar."

Dawn followed her friend's line of sight to the two faculty members engaged in polite conversation at the front of the lecture theatre.

It was undeniable. Belle was wearing the same shade of lipstick that now adorned Gold.

What was more, as she turned her head, Dawn could make out a distinct smudge of the stuff on her left cheekbone; not a perfect swak but certainly a mark left by someone whose lips she had previously rubbed off her own lipstick on.

Dawn and Tara exchanged a look, and Dawn knew that they had both come to the same conclusion.

There was a hell of a lot going on in the faculty that they didn't know about…


End file.
